TAKING AIM AT CAMDEN DRUG CORNERS

Federal, State And Local Police Fanned Out In A High-Visibility Patrol. It
Also Marked The County Prosecutor's Farewell.

CAMDEN - It was Camden's version of Operation Safe Streets.

And it was also a last hurrah for Camden County Prosecutor Lee A. Solomon,
who will leave office next week to join the U.S. Attorney's Office, and who
had helped to organize many such operations before.

Almost 250 state, federal and local police massed along the Camden's
waterfront yesterday in the first "high visibility patrol" involving state
police since Gov. McGreevey assigned 100 troopers to the city last month.

The operation was aimed at shutting down Camden's more than 100 drug
corners, targeting street prostitutes and such nuisance offenses as public
drinking and parking violations, and supporting the community with its
presence.

"This is going to be a home run for Camden," said Capt. William Higgins,
commander of the state police assigned to the city. "The point is that we
are fully operational... . Our radios are deployed, and for the first time
we have the availability to talk to Camden police on their frequency. We
hope to do this at least once a month."

The troopers' presence was part of McGreevey's pledge at a town meeting to
aid Camden's recovery.

The force that gathered yesterday on the waterfront, against a backdrop of
the Philadelphia skyline, included a Camden County Sheriff's Office
helicopter, a mobile command bus, prowl cars, and heavily armed officers
from state and local departments, the Sheriff's Office, and a joint federal
and local drug task force.

"The message is that law enforcement is back, and we intend to give the
city back to the residents," said Solomon, who gave a farewell address at
the staging area and was escorted through the ranks by a bagpiper. The
longtime county prosecutor will be a deputy U.S. attorney in charge of
offices in Trenton and Camden.

"We will do this periodically from time to time, because there is more of
the element of surprise," said Lt. Wendy Galloway, community liaison for
state police in the city. She said the aim is to force drug dealers off the
streets and disrupt their trade, putting a greater financial burden on
their operations.

One of the troopers who fanned out into Camden's four police districts was
Sgt. Louis Klock. For him, it was deja vu as he threaded his patrol car
through South Camden. He had been in the city in 1989 for Operation Triad,
a special state, federal and local force put into effect after a spike in
Camden's crime rate.

"We're trying to disrupt the open-air markets," he said. "We're finding it
real easy to shut them down by saturating them with [police] cars."

This time, Klock said, there would be more community policing.

"This is a whole different approach," he said. "We're not just putting
cuffs on... . We're interacting with the residents. We spend a lot of time
just talking to residents."

As he watched the operation last night, Camden Police Capt. Joe Richardson
commented, "This is what we need every night in Camden."